


Tell Me Good-Bye

by terryreviews



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27790078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terryreviews/pseuds/terryreviews
Summary: Set during The Three Doctors, Jamie had managed to sneak aboard the TARDIS during Two's trial and was exiled along with the Doctor to 1970s Earth. He's not been adjusting well to the place nor the NEW Doctor. So, when his Doctor materialized out of thin air one day during a crisis, Jamie takes the opportunity to speak to him. To ask him one thing. Can he take Jamie back with him?
Relationships: Second Doctor/Jamie McCrimmon, Third Doctor/Jamie McCrimmon
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Tell Me Good-Bye

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to the wonderful jessm78 for reading the story before it was published and giving their feedback. It was truly appreciated!
> 
> It is a bit angsty I know but I sprinkled in a bit of hope in there too.

Jamie didn’t understand the circumstances that made this possible. All he knew was, he wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass him by.

Jo, her Doctor, and his Doctor were all standing around the console of the newer TARDIS interior, bantering and bickering, all while his Doctor plucked out a lazy tune on his recorder.

Jamie stood apart, watching it unfurl, taking in what he could of what they knew of the situation. Which was very little. Some odd beasties appeared out of nowhere and were trying to get at the Doctor. That was the extent of their knowledge, in turn, the extent of Jamie’s.

Yet that was not what kept his focus, despite the danger.

His Doctor hadn’t said much to him since appearing. Except for a cherry, surprised, “Hello, Jamie! How wonderful to see you _here!”_ Before promptly being sucked into a feud with the other Doctor.

Now, Jamie felt his stomach flop as an idea occurred to him. Stuck in his mind, stinging and nagging, before he decided he had to act on it.

Working up his nerve, he moved further into the room and called out, “Doctor?” He winced at how nervous he sounded and almost lost his nerve when both Doctors and Jo looked up, “Can I talk tae ye for a moment?”

“Of course,” they said at the same time, then immediately glared at each other, before proceededing to both move forward to where Jamie was.

“No!” The young Scot held up his hand, “just...just _my_ Doctor.” What flicker of guilt he felt at the flash of hurt he saw in the new Doctor’s eyes he quickly pushed down.

The two Doctors shared a look, his Doctor giving the other a sympathetic pat and a very quiet and sincere, “sorry, old chap.”

Then, his shabby man followed him back. Back into the depths of the TARDIS. Back into what used to be their room. Oh, he still slept in there with the newer Doctor, but it was different. Distant, cold. 

Once the door was closed behind them, he Doctor said, “Jamie,” apologetic, sad, “with all that is happening we don’t have long to talk you understand.”

“I know,” Jamie, who had ducked his head, lifted it once more. His heart stopped. That familiar, friendly, pair of blue eyes met his.

Unthinking, Jamie closed the distance (not much really) between them, wrapped his arms around the other’s waist, and pulled him in tight.

“Jamie!” Oh, to hear his Doctor’s voice again. He’d almost forgotten how sweet and tender it was. How fondly the Doctor would say his name.

It was almost too much for Jamie to bare.

He nuzzled the Doctor’s neck.

“I thought I’d never see ye again.”

After a moment, he pulled back to see the other’s face again. To really make sure it was him.

The Doctor reached up to cup Jamie’s face with a small smile. He was going to say something. Something serious. Jamie could tell. As the Doctor’s lips parted, Jamie swooped in for a long, hard, kiss.

At first, the Doctor stiffened in surprise, but all to soon melted into the embrace the way he always did when Jamie gave over to passion, arms wrapping around Jamie’s neck. One hand cradling the back of Jamie’s skull, kneading the shaggy hair.

Only when the need for air won out did Jamie break away, pressing his forehead to the Doctor’s.

They held each other like that for a while and Jamie committed every sensation to memory. The sweet, earthy, smell, the softness of his body, the mildly playful way the Doctor rocked them on the spot as if swaying to unheard music.

In all the months he’d been trapped in 1970s England with the new Doctor, it occurred to him just how much he missed his clever wee chappie.

The Doctor did speak then,

“Jamie,” low and sweet, “what did you want to talk about?”

All over, Jamie’s muscles tensed, his spine felt as if ice water had been poured down the length and he couldn’t speak. He knew what the answer to his request was most likely going to be, but still he needed to say it. It was a question of how to even ask.

To the point would be best, “can ye take me wit’ ye?”

The Doctor looked at him, studying his face, regret in his eyes, “Jamie, I can’t. I can’t take you with me.”

While he knew in his heart what the answer would be, it still stung. He clung to the Doctor all the more tightly and buried his face into the Doctor’s neck.

Taking a breath, Jamie asked, “why?”

“Because,” the Doctor began rocking them again, moving his arms tow rap around Jamie’s middle, “you’re already with me for one.”

“What?” Jamie tried to comprehend that. How was he already there when he was here?

“When I was pulled from my time stream you were asleep,” he glanced back, “in this very bed actually. I’d just stepped into the hall, intending to head to the library when whoosh, bang, I materialized in the new TARDIS.”

Jamie was not dumb, he understood from his time with the Doctor, that time itself was flexible. A fluid thing to be traveled by the capable traveler. However, sometimes it was difficult to wrap his mind around the details. Like now.

“I...don’t understand,” he admitted. Maybe if he were so worked up, he would understand, he’d be able to think. But right now, he just couldn’t.

Carefully, the Doctor withdrew and took Jamie by the hand, leading him so that they could sit side by side on the bed, shoulder to shoulder, holding hands.

“You understand that this is a time machine?” The Doctor asked gently.

“Aye.”

“That there is a past, present, and future?”

“Aye,” Jamie nodded for emphasis.

“Well,” the Doctor squeezed his hand tighter, “we are currently in _your_ present. I am from your past. Where I am from, you...past you...is right here,” he gestured to the empty bed, “dreaming of Scotland.” He paused, his lips twitched as if in humor and then he leaned in, conspiratorially and said, “as wonderful as it would be to have two of you with me...I doubt we’d ever leave this room.”

Jamie laughed. A startled, but sincere, little sound that, once he got going, built and bult. He bent forward and just laughed. Laughed at the absurdity of the idea. Laughed until it hurt.

“Come now, Jamie,” the Doctor tried for chiding but couldn’t hide his amusement, “it wasn’t that funny.”

Jamie took a deep breath, forcing his residual giggles down his throat, looking at the Doctor with one of the first real smiles he’d had in a long time.

“Sorry,” he savored the doting the Doctor was doing with dabbing his damp cheeks with a handkerchief, clearing up the mirth full tears, “been a long time since I’d laughed like that.”

A moroseness passed over his Doctor’s face as he tucked the cloth back into his pocket.

“Tell me about it?” He asked, giving his full attention to Jamie, reaffirming the hold he had on his hand.

Jamie, feeling just a bit better for his laughing fit, found it was much easier to speak.

“I...I’m not sure how much I can tell ye?” Time was flexible, but if the War Games taught him anything...there were rules.

“Jamie,” the Doctor seemed to understand, he always did, “you can speak freely. Truth be told, when I go back to my time I won’t remember this. My memory will be erased to preserve continuity and a whole host of other things. So please, tell me everything.”

“Alright,” Jamie met him head on, “after the war games (”the what?” Jamie ignored that) ye’r people showed up. They weren’ happy with ye.”

The Doctor’s face had gone ashen and Jamie had a pang of guilt and anger in his chest for what this man had yet to face, how scared he was of his own people, “no...no I...I don’t suppose they would be,” he cleared his throat, “go on?”

“Aye. They said ye were tae be exiled. I managed to slip away from my guards, hide in the TARDIS. I didn’t hear the rest of the sentence but when the TARDIS landed, when...when I did see ye again...” Jamie stopped then, the memory sharp in his mind’s eye, “ye were him,” he nodded tot he door, to the new Doctor beyond it.

“And,” the Doctor cleared his throat again, “and this bothered you?” The worry in his voice made Jamie almost hold back, but he couldn’t. After months of holding it in, he had to say something. Maybe not all of it, but something.

“He’s no’ ye! He doesn’ act like ye! He...he doesn’ hold my hand, or pet my hair. He sleeps on the other side of the bed like I’ve got the plague. He doesn’ talk tae me. Not tae mention being stuck here. I hate it here. I don’ like the music. I don’ like the clothes. And I’m just useless. There’s a whole army and other scientists behind him. He never asks my opinion anymore. He does all his own fightin’,” a bitter flash of jealousy welled up in his chest. He never considered himself a jealous person, but thinking about how much everything had changed, how much time the new Doctor spent with Liz, the Brigadier, Jo, but not him...not anymore. It must’ve shown on his face. The pain, the anger, the sadness, he wasn’t trying to hide it, “Maybe I shoulda let the Time Lords send me back. Maybe it was a mistake coming here.”

“No!” 

Jamie jumped at the panicked yelp of his Doctor. The wee man stared at him with a host of emotions.

“Jamie,” the hand not holding Jamie’s went to cup the young man’s cheek, “I don’t know, yet, all that has transpired but I can guess that it was not...pleasant...to say the least. Especially with the highlights you’ve just told me. But Jamie, my darling Jamie...” he ran his thumb over Jamie’s cheek, “knowing that you of all people are in my future gives me hope.” He gave Jamie a quick peck and pressed their foreheads together.

“Talk to him,” he implored, “tell him, after all this business is sorted, how you are feeling. He’ll listen, I know he will. I know that it is hard to grasp, but I promise you, he is me. That man is still me and no matter what form I take, I love you.”

Jamie closed his eyes, taking in all of this, struggling with the fact that would be stuck here, that the new Doctor actually was his Doctor, that somehow the new Doctor still loved him, and that, after all this was done, he would have to say good bye again, for good, to his clever man, confused and hurt him. Still, his Doctor said that seeing Jamie here, in his future, gave him hope. That he loved him. That was something to hold onto.

“M...maybe, I could talk tae hi...future ye,” he conceded slowly.

“Please, for me Jamie. Please give me something good to look forward to,” the Doctor whispered against his lips before drawing Jamie into a deep, tender, loving kiss as if they had all the time in the world. 

When they pulled away, breathless, Jamie promised.

“Of course. For ye, anthin’.” He had his doubts, but his Doctor asked him, so he would. “Just...say it again. Just in case. Just tell me ye love me.”

The Doctor took Jamie’s face in both hands, looking the most serious he’d ever had.

“James Robert McCrimmon. My dear, brave, loyal, Jamie, you are one of a kind. A beautiful man. I have lived a long time and I can honestly say that it would have meant nothing if I hadn’t met you. I love you. I love you so much Jamie. No matter what.”

For a moment, all of Jamie’s doubts, his fears, his frustrations, leaked away.

“I love ye, too. With all that is me, I do. I’ll talk tae hi...ye. We’ll figure it out.”

“Thank you, Jamie. Now, one last thing. I know that we’re going to be seeing each other until this mess is over, but I want you to say something to me.”

“Anything.”

The Doctor smiled at that. The eagerness and gave Jamie one last toe curling kiss. Deep, dipping his tongue in, pouring all of his hearts into it before pulling away and demanding, “tell me good bye.”

“What! Why?” Jamie reeled back.

“I want you to be able to get used to your new situation. Not to forget the past, but to move on. So,” he petted a hand through Jamie’s hair the way he knew he liked, “look me in the eye and say “good-bye Doctor”.”

At first, Jamie was reluctant. The finality of it left a hole in his chest, like the last time they said good by. Still, this good-bye was on their terms and while there was a lingering unhappiness to it all, there was hope. more hope than any Jamie had seen in months.

He hugged the Doctor tight, forcing himself to remember everything about the man, and doing as requested, looked him dead in the eyes and whispered a mournful, “good-bye, Doctor.”

The Doctor smiled and slowly detangled himself from Jamie, standing. He took each of Jamie’s hands and coaxed him to stand with him. He held his hands and whispered back, “good-bye, Jamie.” Before releasing them both and making his way to the door.

Without looking back, he opened the door, paused, and moved through it silently. After a beat, Jamie followed.

“Hello!” He heard his Doctor say just ahead of him before he entered the console room, “what have we missed?” His Doctor promptly went back to his previous perch standing next to the newer Doctor. He scanned some things on the console and tisked, “I see no progress made,” a clear jab. Which in turn launched both Doctors into a fresh bout of bickering.

Jo caught Jamie’s eye, nodded at the pair with an exasperated grin and roll of her eyes, and Jamie found himself grinning back.

As he watched the two, he could see one thing that remained between Doctors. Stubbornness.

Maybe everything really would work out in the end.


End file.
